Naruto, Konoha's Puppeteer
by SpectreShepard
Summary: Naruto is in the first year of the Academy and through neglect and the hate and fear that the ninja and villagers have instilled within their children, his skills are abysmal. However, that won't last forever. Sasori has taken notice of him and tells him that he has potential. Now with instruction from Sasori of the Red Sand, Naruto will rise to become Konoha's Resident Puppeteer.
1. Prologue

Prologue

Konohagakure – Eight Years after the Kyubi Attack

The sun was high in the sky and it was a very nice 76 degrees in the forest that made up the location of the hidden village known as Konohagakure. It was early in the morning and the daily business of running a hidden village was underway. All of the villagers were walking towards their places of work to open for the morning and ninja were seen hopping on rooftops in the direction of the Hokage Tower for their daily mission assignments.

If anybody had just stopped and decided to look around, they wouldn't see anything out of the ordinary. Well, they might see one thing. There were these two people whom were walking through the village and they wore black cloaks with red clouds. They also were wearing straw hats that had a red string that was about a foot in length.

However, if anybody were to actually take notice of the two weirdly dressed people, they would just put it down to strangers and their bad tastes in clothing. It wasn't as if wearing ugly clothes was a crime in Konohagakure.

One of these strangers was about nearly six feet tall and he was slender. One couldn't exactly see his body frame underneath those robes, but if they could they would know automatically that this man was something to be reckoned with. His muscles and bones were structured more like a snake's than that of a human's. There was only one person known to have a body structure like that. That man's name is Orochimaru. Orochimaru is an S-Class Nuke-nin from Konohagakure.

The second man's description when hidden inside of those robes is even more misleading. If someone were to see him right now, all they would see is a hunched back man that is very obese. They couldn't be any further from the truth. This man was actually a puppet with a secret chamber for the real person to reside within. This man's name is Sasori of the Red Sand. He is an S-Class Nuke-nin from Sunagakure.

So it would make anybody whom actually knew the real identities of the two weirdly dressed men that were just waltzing through Konohagakure curious as to their reasoning for being in Konoha. It wasn't every day that an S-Class Nuke-nin made his way into a hidden village, especially the one he was running from. Actually, the only person whom wouldn't be curious was Orochimaru, because he was the only one who knew the reason they were there.

So it should be no surprise that Sasori was wondering to himself why the hell they were walking through a hidden village, especially one as strong as Konoha. His partner didn't explain why he wanted to come here; he just said he was going. Sasori had decided that he had better tag along to keep an eye on the snake or else he was positive that Orochimaru would get himself tangled up inside something that he wouldn't be able to get himself out of.

So when the snake used his little melting through the ground technique you could see metaphorical steam rising out of Sasori's ears. He was so pissed that Orochimaru had decided to ditch him, because it just confirmed his theory that Orochimaru was up to no good and that they might end up having to beat a hasty retreat and he liked to take things slow. It was difficult to get this puppet to run.

Sasori decided that he would roam around and keep an eye out for that snake of a partner. He had been walking for nearly an hour when he came upon a food stand whose name advertised their main dish. Sasori of the Red Sand had stumbled upon Ichiraku's Ramen.

It was at this particular food stand and at this particular moment that Sasori laid his puppet eyes upon Konohagakure's resident Jinchuriki, Naruto Uzumaki. First he was watching the boy out of morbid curiosity. The boy in front of him was slurping down the ramen faster than the yellow flash could obliterate an entire Iwagakure platoon. It was fabled that it didn't take the Yondaime Hokage anymore than twenty seconds to take out an entire platoon.

When the boy stood up and paid before leaving the food stand, Sasori had been about to set out again looking for his snake of a partner. However, when the boy started walking down the street, the boy's expression changed from one of happiness and joy to something that struck a chord within Sasori. It was the look of pure loneliness that only someone who had lost their parents could ever have.

So for some reason he found himself following the boy as he walked through the streets. He watched as the boy was shunned by almost all of the villagers and ninja around. The one's that didn't completely ignore him just sent him hateful glares before turning away. Sasori loved puzzles and this boy was turning out to be one. It wasn't as if he had anything better to do with his time.

So Sasori spent the next few days watching the boy as he went about his normal life. He would watch the boy head to the little ramen stand every morning and eat a few bowels of the stuff. He would then follow him as he went to what Sasori assumed was their academy. He would sit outside as the boy went to class and he would wait until the boy got out.

Throughout the academy time, he would watch the different classes come out and work on their myriad exercises. He would watch young children struggle as they attempted to make a passable henge or try to substitute themselves with a log or something similar. The boy had one of the best henge of all of the children there. He was also very quick when it came to the substitution.

After lunch time he would watch the boys practice their taijutsu. He would watch as Naruto tried to get someone to spar with him and he would get denied by just about everyone there was. It would get to the point that the instructors would have to order someone to spar with him. However, he didn't get half as much practice in as the others and because of that his taijutsu suffered badly.

So many things about the boy were striking chords with his own past and it was such an engaging puzzle that he wasn't even angry at Orochimaru anymore. Although he did wonder what the little snake was up to that was taking so long to do. So when Orochimaru hadn't showed up the next day he again found himself studying the boy and trying to figure out why he was feeling the way he was.

This boy was making him feel things that he hadn't felt in so long and he didn't have the slightest clue as to why it was happening. However, he was certain of one thing. With the right practice and instruction, the boy could become a pretty good puppeteer. It was all there in front of his eyes. The boy was so much like him when he was younger.

So when he followed the boy to a clearing and saw the determination that the boy had to improve himself, he couldn't help but start to see another similarity between the two of them. It was mainly that last similarity that made him choose to do what he was going to do. Attaching a chakra string to two scrolls that he had, he quickly flung them across the clearing towards the young boy.

"Hey, who's out there?" Naruto shouted as he stopped punching the tree in front of him and turned around sharply at the sound of the scrolls impacting with the ground at his feet.

"Read them and master them. You have the potential." Sasori said out loud before turning away and vanishing into the surrounding forest.

Naruto quickly took off in the direction that he had heard the voice from, but he couldn't see anything. Sasori had disappeared within the thick forest and Naruto was too young and inexperienced to find him. That didn't stop him from looking though. In fact, he spent the next thirty minutes trying to find the man who had said that he had potential.

There weren't many people that ever said anything like that to him. In fact, only one other person had ever said anything similar and that was the old and kindly Hokage. After he gave up any hope of finding the man that had obviously seen something in him that others didn't, he returned to the clearing that he had been practicing in.

Naruto walked over to the two scrolls on the ground and sat down in front of them before picking up one. He unrolled it and what he saw confused him so much that he instantly put it down and picked the other one up. The first one had appeared to be some kind of blueprint for something, but it was so complex and it was written using technical terms that he had never seen that making it impossible for him to understand any of it.

The second scroll was however something that he could understand. It was an instructional guide to the ninja art of puppetry. Normally, Naruto wouldn't have had the patience or the desire to sit and read something like this, but since the man had shown that he believed in him, Naruto decided right then and there that he would succeed. He would prove that whoever that man was, that he was right. He would master the ninja art of puppetry.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Konohagakure – Training Ground 13 – Next Day

Naruto was sitting in the lotus position in the middle of one of the more deserted training grounds. Training ground 13 was his home away from home. The training ground was ringed in completely by a perfect circle of trees. On the right side of the training ground was a small pond about three feet deep. There was a large boulder on the left side of the training ground.

Naruto had just gotten out of academy a little earlier and had immediately gone to the spot that he had found a year ago when he was wondering around with nothing better to do. He hadn't been looking for a spot to train, but it was just so perfect that he found himself going back to it day after day.

Naruto cracked open the scroll and went back to the first section. He had glimpsed through the entire thing the other night, and it had told him to make sure that he had completed the various chakra control exercises that it gave instructions on before going forward. So that was what he was going to do. He was going to master every single one of them.

"Make a leaf stick to your forehead with chakra, huh that shouldn't be too hard." Naruto said to himself as he placed the scroll down and picked up one of the many leaves that littered the ground around him.

Naruto placed the leaf on his forehead and looked back down to the scroll and the instructions inscribed in it. It said to channel as little chakra as he could to the spot the spot on his forehead that he had placed the leaf. It said that if he channeled too much chakra that the leaf would burn and if he channeled too little, that it wouldn't stick and would just float away.

Sticking his tongue out of the corner of his mouth in concentration, Naruto began to fan that flame that they had taught them to use the first couple of days in the academy. Once he started to feel it course throughout his body, he imagined it going directly to his forehead and focusing on that one point. All of a sudden he screamed out in surprise as the leaf caught fire while in contact with his skin.

"Well, that's certainly some incentive to get it right." Naruto thought to himself as he gently rubbed his slightly irritated skin before placing another leaf on it and beginning to concentrate again.

Naruto's attempts were identical to the first one for the majority of the day. Finally, while the sun was beginning to set on the horizon, Naruto was able to get the trice damned leaf to stick to his forehead. Naruto suddenly jumped up from his cramped position and shouted in triumph. Losing his concentration in his outburst, he cried in surprise again as the leaf suddenly caught aflame like all the others had.

However, once he had figured out the exact amount of chakra that he needed to make the leaf stick, he was able to replicate the occurrence many times and had even made the leaf stick to his forehead for nearly a full thirty seconds before he called it a night. Before heading home, he looked at the scroll one last time. It said that he needed to be able to stick the leaf to his forehead for five full minutes before moving on to the next chakra control exercise.

By the end of the first week, Naruto was able to make the leaf stick to his forehead for a full minute. By the end of the second week, he had gotten to two and half minutes. Another week's worth of time and he was crossing the line of three full minutes. It had taken another two full weeks to get him to four full minutes.

Konohagakure – Training Ground 13 – Two Months after Gaining The Scrolls

After eight full weeks since he had been given the scrolls by the mysterious man that vanished into thin air, Naruto was finally ready to move onto the next chakra control exercise. So once again Naruto could be found sitting in the lotus position in the middle of Training Ground 13 as he read over the next exercise.

"Climb a tree without using your hands. Well, it's going to hurt like shit when I fall back down, but what the hell." Naruto said as he rolled the scroll back up after reading a little more instructions.

The scroll said that the tree climbing exercise was meant to teach a person not only an invaluable ninja skill, but it was also meant to train someone in channeling chakra to different parts of their body. Since the feet were the hardest parts of the body to channel the chakra to, if you could learn to master channeling chakra to your feet, than you should be able to channel it to any part of your body with ease.

So grabbing a kunai like the scroll told him to do, he took a running start and starting channeling chakra to his feet as he ran up the tree. He made it about four feet up the tree before he was pushed off of the tree from using too much chakra. Slashing the place that he had made it to, Naruto back flipped in midair and landed in a crouch.

"The scroll said that if I use too much, that it will push me off of the tree and that if I use too little that I won't stick. So I have to find that sweet spot, huh." Naruto said while looking at the tree and staring at the cut that he had made in it to show where he had gotten the last time.

By the end of the night, Naruto had only gotten up about three more feet. By the end of the second day, he had reached fifteen feet. By the end of the third day, he had reached the top of the tree. Now he had to go on to the second part of the tree climbing exercise.

The scroll told him to walk up the tree instead of running and to stay in one spot for a total of ten minutes. Naruto had overestimated his abilities when he tried this part of the exercise for the first time. He had figured that since he could stick the leaf to his forehead for a full five minutes that it wouldn't any harder to stand still on the tree.

However, he couldn't have been any more wrong. He walked three feet up the tree and stopped. He didn't last thirty seconds before his chakra had pushed him off of the tree. Not expecting to be pushed off that early if at all, he wasn't prepared and fell hard. With a lump on the top of his head the size of an orange, Naruto walked up the tree again.

The same process took place for the rest of the night and for the next three months. It wasn't difficult to channel chakra from his body anymore, but keeping up a steady stream of it for a long time was. So, five months after he had first started channeling chakra to stick the leaf to his forehead, he was finally able to stand on a tree for a full ten minutes.

Konohagakure – Training Ground 13 – Seven Months after Gaining the Scrolls

So again Naruto could be found sitting in the lotus position in his training field as he opened that familiar scroll. This time however, he was being tasked with something different to do. This time the scroll told him to stick a leaf to each of his fingers and to keep them there for a full twenty minutes.

Since it was easier to channel chakra through the fingers than the feet, he was able to keep the leaves on his fingers for a full three minutes before one of them began to burn and the rest soon followed as his concentration completely slipped. The scroll said that this particular exercise was not only meant to again lengthen the time he could channel chakra, but it was meant to teach him to channel from multiple sources at once.

Since when he began to lose one of the leaves, he would lose his concentration all together and lose the rest, the lesson was also to teach him how to keep your concentration when things begin to go downhill. By the end of the first week he was able to hold all of the leaves for a full five minutes before losing one of them.

By the end of the second week he was able to hold them for a full seven minutes and he had the concentration to hold onto the rest when he lost one of them. It took him another three months to master this particular exercise. So on to the next exercise he went.

Konohagakure – Training Ground 13 – Ten Months after Gaining the Scrolls

The next exercise was however not a chakra control exercise. It was a lesson in the mechanics of puppets. The scroll did however tell him to continue sticking leaves to his fingers and other parts of his body while he studied up on all of the technical terms associated with puppets.

Not only was this meant to teach him different technical things about puppets, but it was also meant to make him channel chakra as a second nature. As a puppet, you couldn't think about keeping your chakra strings up in the middle of a battle, it has to be an automatic action.

So after a full 3 months of studying up on all that the scroll had for him to learn and studying resources that the scroll told him to read if he had access to them, many of which the library had on their shelves, Naruto was able to actually name all of the individual parts of a puppet's body. Not only that, but he could now look at the blueprints that the other scroll contained and understand it.

Konohagakure – Training Ground 13 – One Year and One Month After Gaining the Scrolls

The scroll then went on to direct him to walk on water. This exercise was meant to teach him how to constantly change the amount of chakra he channeled to stick to a surface. Since a puppet would impact things, the amount of chakra that you would have to channel through your strings would constantly change depending on the circumstances.

"Well, it's a good thing I never get sick, because I just know that I am going to be getting wet, a lot." Naruto said as he began channeling chakra to his feet before stepping out onto the pond and subsequently falling in within seconds.

Since if he couldn't change the amount of chakra that he was channeling fast enough he would lose the ability to stay stuck to whatever he was sticking to, this exercise was meant to not only teach him how to change the amount he was channeling, but also to increase the speed at which he recognized the need to change and the speed at which he could change. That didn't make Naruto appreciate falling in a pond more times than he could count over the next two months.

Konohagakure – Training Ground 13 – One Year and Three Months after Gaining the Scrolls

Finally, he had mastered enough chakra control exercises to begin learning how to use chakra strings. The scroll said that it required a very good chakra control and that was the reason for him having to master all of the chakra control exercises before now.

The scroll said that he had to channel his chakra through a finger into a threadlike construct and then he needed to maintain it for nearly five minutes before moving on. He was able to make his chakra into the threadlike construct, but it had snapped within seconds of coming into existence.

It took him a full four months before he was able to hold a single string together for a full five minutes. It took him another five months before he could actually create and maintain five full threads. He had finally learned how to create and maintain ten full strings a few months before he was due to graduate from the academy.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Naruto spent his off time during the three months before his graduation coming up with his own puppet design. He had originally planned on using the design that had been left to him in the scroll, but he had soon found, after learning how to interpret the blue prints, that many of the needed supplies for this particular puppet were way to costly or were completely unavailable to him right now.

He had been disheartened for a little while after learning about that, but it hadn't lasted. No sooner had he gotten over it had he grabbed his own scroll and ink bottle and began drawing up different blue prints. In his little workroom that he had converted his closet into, there were many used scrolls that he had discarded after noticing something wrong with the design.

Naruto had created nearly ten designs before he finally created one that he liked. The puppet was a quadruped with two inch long claws on each of its feet. At the henge joints on each of its limbs were six inch retractable curved blades.

The puppet had a tail that's end was created out of a metal ball with five one inch long spikes. The puppet also had a lion's mane that was created out of nearly a hundred senbon needles. Its mouth had a set of jagged spikes for teeth and a hidden kunai launcher.

He had finally completed the blue prints for his puppet with nearly a week before his graduation. He had also finished all of the chakra control exercises that the scroll had recommended and he had also read all of the source material it had given him as well as the books that it had told him to research.

Naruto knew that he was by no means a puppet master, for he had read history reports on several Puppeteers as suggested by the scroll, but he was proud of himself nonetheless. He had accomplished a great deal in the last four years and the only thing that would have made it greater would have been to be able to share his accomplishment with somebody.

However, as he didn't have a teacher and he didn't allow anybody to know about his extra-curricular training, he didn't have a single person whom he could tell about this. He hadn't even told his Jiji about this. He knew that the old hokage was kind, but he didn't want him forbidding him from training in the art of puppetry which he had come to love.

However, he knew that he couldn't keep his abilities secret very much longer. In fact, the moment he graduated and was placed on a team, he would have to explain to the jonin sensei about his skills. After all, his team would have to know what he was capable of on the battlefield.

So Naruto spent the last week before his graduation literally holed up in his workroom when he wasn't at the academy. He was able to purchase all of the parts needed to complete his puppet, and it was going to take a good amount of time to get it done. He wished that he had more time, but he was willing to work with what he had, even if it meant that he got only a few hours of sleep every day for the last week. It was a good thing that he had such a high stamina, otherwise he didn't know if he would have been able to accomplish his task at hand.

The morning of the exams, one could find Naruto in his workroom finally putting the final touches on his puppet. It had taken him a few days to find the kunai launcher, and a full day to figure out how to install the thing. He ended up having to take apart the puppet's throat and chest cavity and enlarge them a little to allow it to fit. It had been a little bulkier than he had assumed it was going to be.

As he tightened the last screw and stood up to look at his puppet, he allowed a large smile to be plastered across his face. It had taken a long time, it had been a bitch, but he had finally completed it. He had finished his Raion (Lion) Puppet. After a few minutes of admiring his work, he started going through a stack of scrolls on his desk.

After a few minutes of searching, he had finally found what he was looking for. Naruto cleared his floor of all of the wasted scrolls and unfurled this scroll before laying it on the ground. The scroll was almost completely covered in kanji, except for a circle in the center about a foot in circumference. Naruto laid his Raion Puppet on the scroll, before flipping through a few seals and slapping his palms onto each side of the scroll.

"I am so glad that scroll recommended I learn how to seal things inside scrolls." Naruto thought to himself as a large plume of smoke enveloped him and obscured his vision before dispersing to reveal that his Raion Puppet had been sealed inside the scroll.

Naruto picked the scroll up and rolled it up before placing it inside one of his scroll pouches. His puppet wasn't the only thing that he had decided to seal inside scrolls. The scroll had also recommended always carrying around a week's worth of provisions and extra kunai and shuriken. Since food that was sealed away didn't waste, he had taken the scrolls advice to heart and started carrying scrolls with supplies everywhere he went.

Naruto stood up and stretched, popping and cracking several of his vertebrae and sighed in pleasure. He finally glanced over at his clock on his desk and decided that it was time to head out for the academy. It wouldn't do to be late for his exams after all.

By the time that Naruto arrived at the academy, he had close to ten minutes left before the exams would begin. Deciding that he would just head on inside instead of waiting outside for the next ten minutes, Naruto locked his hands behind his head and walked inside the classroom.

As Naruto walked inside the classroom, he noticed several things immediately. One, Sasuke looked irritated as usual. Naruto couldn't blame the kid for his attitude though. He was pretty sure that if he had all of those fan girls clamoring to be his girlfriend that he would feel the exact same way. They were just lucky that the Uchiha had enough control not to toast them with a fire release jutsu.

The second thing he noticed was that the only seat left open just happened to be on the right of the Uchiha heir. Of all of the fan girls in the room, not a single one of them had taken that particular seat. The reason being of course, the Uchiha hadn't allowed them to.

One of the main things that the scroll had mentioned almost religiously was the need for stealth and anonymity. It mentioned several times that a puppeteer should never reveal more of their skills than necessary.

So throughout the entire four years that he had been secretly training through the scrolls instruction, he never once let on about his abilities. He never showed his excellent chakra control that he had developed through the exercises that had been recommended, nor did he ever show his intellectual knowledge that he had gained through reading many different source materials.

So everyone considered him to be the dead last of the class, the idiot with no abilities whatsoever. Everybody that is, but Sasuke Uchiha. The Uchiha heir had somehow wandered across the training ground that Naruto had used and had glimpsed Naruto during one of his many chakra control exercises. Sasuke had recognized the water walking exercise that Naruto had been doing. He knew of it from watching his older brother train before the massacre. He knew just how refined one's chakra control had to be to do it and he had been so surprised that the 'dead last' could do it when he supposedly didn't even have the control needed to make a single clone.

After that occurrence, Sasuke had gone out of his way to surreptitiously observe Naruto when he trained so that he could try and figure out the puzzle that the blond boy had become. That lasted about a few weeks before he just decided to confront the boy and find his answers the more direct way. However, Naruto had been completely unwilling to give him any kind of clue as to how he had acquired his chakra control, nor why he kept his abilities from everybody else. Sasuke honestly didn't care that the boy kept his abilities hidden, for he could appreciate the advantage of anonymity and surprise, and so he had promised Naruto when prompted that he wouldn't reveal the blond's skills.

After their conversation, Sasuke wasn't as cold to Naruto as he was to most of the other kids. Sasuke saw Naruto as an equal and that had earned him his respect. So it came as no surprise to him when the only person to actually greet him when he entered the classroom was Sasuke.

"Naruto, I was thinking there for a minute that you were going to chicken out or something." Sasuke said; his voice completely bereft of the irritation he had been experiencing not a second earlier.

"Yeah, as if, I got this thing in the bag." Naruto said as his face broke out into a cheerful smile.

Although neither of them had any intention of it happening before that fateful conversation, the two of them had become good friends afterwards. It kind of helped that the two of them had some similarities. They were both orphans and although their lives constituted two completely different aspects of the term, they could sympathize with how the other felt at times where others couldn't.

"Oh please, you're the dead last Naruto, there isn't a chance in hell your passing this exam." Sakura said from her seat on the left of Sasuke.

Now, just because Sasuke didn't treat Naruto like he was the dead last of the class, that didn't mean others didn't. In fact, almost everyone in their treated him like the title he purposely earned. However, it didn't really do anything to him. He would just ignore them the best he could. That is, when they would allow him to.

"Yeah, I don't know why Sasuke hangs out with you, but you don't stand a single chance." Ino piped in from her place a few rows back.

Soon, almost the entire class had decided to give their own input as to the 'dead last's' chances at passing the exam, and Naruto was really close to the breaking point. He could ignore the occasional attack on his skills, but when almost everyone decided to chip into the assault, it became quite a bit more difficult.

"Just show them up in the exam." Hinata whispered to Naruto from her seat in front of him.

One of the only people other than Sasuke that didn't treat him like the dead last, was the lavender eyed Hyuga heiress in front of him. However, unlike Sasuke, she didn't treat Naruto like he was her equal. She treated him as if he was her idol.

More often than not, it was Hinata that came to Naruto's defense when she sensed that he was about to break. She didn't love him; she respected him and looked up to him. He had once stepped in to protect her from several bullies, and had taken the beating that they had prepared for her.

She didn't know of his skills, but she knew that he would never give up. In her eyes, he was the shining example of what a shinobi should be like. Unfortunately, she was one of the only ones to have that particular mindset.

"Thanks, Hinata." Naruto whispered back after his anger and frustration had melted away at her whispered support.

All of a sudden, a chunin walked inside the classroom holding a clipboard up to his face. When he lowered the clipboard, everyone saw a tanned man with a scar running across his face right over his nose. He had dark brown hair tied up in a ponytail and he wore a flak jacket over a long-sleeved dark blue shirt and a pair of matching pants. This man's name was Iruka Umino.

"Okay, okay, settle down all of you." Iruka said in his calming voice that for some reason was always able to bring people to silence.

Iruka was a person who demanded the respect of the students that he taught. He didn't have an imposing figure, nor did he come from any clan, but they all knew that he could kick their asses any time of the day if he wanted.

However, that wasn't the reason he could bring them all to silence with just a few words. It was because of his big head jutsu that they had all seen their first class. That particular jutsu had scared the living day lights out of all of them, and they didn't really want to have to experience that ever again.

"Okay, when I call your name, you'll come to classroom 301 and we'll administer your exam." Iruka said before rattling off the name of the first student to take the exam and leaving with him in the direction of classroom 301.

After Iruka had left, everybody went back to their individual conversations and thankfully no one felt like reiterating their belief that the so called dead last couldn't pass the exam. So, Naruto just sat there in blissful silence while he waited for his turn to take the exam.

Now, Naruto might have been allowed to sit in blissful silence, but unfortunately Sasuke wasn't. The moment that Iruka left, his fan girls had automatically begun their argument over who Sasuke liked more and who among them deserved him. He literally felt like groaning in annoyance, but he remembered what happened the last time he did that. One of the fan girls had thought that he had groaned in appreciation of the way that she was latched on to him and for the rest of the day she hadn't budged from her spot around his neck. He never wanted to have to go through that again.

Minute after minute slowly trickled by and each student that had left to take their exam either came back with a headband or they didn't come back at all. A strange boy named Shino Aburame had been the fifth to go and take his exam, and he had been the first to return with a headband. That didn't bode well for the test takers.

A few test takers later and Hinata's name was called. The girl looked just about as nervous as anyone could be and Naruto feared for her chances. He knew that she was a skilled girl and that she had what it took to pass, but he also knew that she had confidence problems. You can be the best there ever was and those kinds of problems can make you royally screw up. However, he also knew the cure for his particular girl's confidence problems.

"Good luck Hinata. You'll pass with flying colors, I know it." Naruto said to the girl as she stood up on her trembling knees.

The effect was almost instantaneous. Hinata's knees stopped shaking and she stood tall as she lifted her head to look her idol in the eyes. He knew that he had succeeded when he saw the quiet resolve and determination in the lavender eyed girl dredge up every iota of confidence that she had. She nodded her head in his direction before leaving for the exam. She was back in ten minutes and she had her headband wrapped around her neck.

"See, I knew would do it." Naruto whispered to the girl once she had sat down in front of him again.

"Thanks Naruto." Hinata whispered back before falling silent once again.

A couple of students later and then Ino got her turn to take the exam. Sakura was shouting insults at the blonde girl and Ino shot a few right back at her as she left the room and made her way to the exam room. She also returned with a headband wrapped around her waist like a sash.

Next up went a loud and brash boy named Kiba Inuzuka. Kiba was the second to dead last, and even though he didn't particularly like Naruto, he never said anything bad about him. After all, the only thing that put him above Naruto was his family's taijutsu and he knew that. After about fifteen minutes Kiba returned waving his headband for the entire class to see.

Sasuke was the next to go and Naruto offered up a good luck as the Uchiha heir stood up. Sasuke just nodded his head to Naruto before heading towards the examination room. About ten minutes later found Sasuke walking back into the classroom with his headband resting proudly upon his forehead. Seconds later all of the fan girls had launched themselves at him.

After a while, Shikamaru Nara, Choji Akimichi, and Sakura Haruno all had taken their own examinations and had come back with their headbands. Finally, Naruto's name was called and he stood up before placing his hands behind his head again.

"Naruto, you better not fail." Sasuke said as Naruto began lazily walking towards the door.

Naruto just turned around and gave a smirk towards Sasuke before continuing on and ignoring all of the other's calls about how he was going to fail. Naruto was going to love the looks on all of their faces when he came back in with his headband.

The first part of the exam was throwing kunai and shuriken. There were ten targets set up and he had to hit at least five out of the ten. He was able to hit seven of the targets with the flurry of shuriken and kunai that he released.

The second part of the exam was taijutsu. This of course was the one thing that Naruto was slightly worried about. He knew that even with all of his improvements, that his taijutsu skills were still abysmal. However, he wasn't going to let that get him down and so he stepped up and placed his body into his ready stance.

Seconds later found Naruto rushing at Iruka and throwing a punch at the chunin's stomach that was easily blocked. Naruto then sent a roundhouse kick at the chunin that was ducked under before following up with a three punch combo to Iruka's chest.

Iruka blocked the first two and then latched on to Naruto's right fist when it came back for the third punch. Naruto twisted around and unleashed another roundhouse kick which made Iruka release his fist so that he could dodge the kick.

Having seen enough of Naruto's taijutsu skill for the exam, Iruka called the spar and told Naruto what he had to do for the third part of the exam. Iruka felt really bad for the blond boy. Although he didn't hate the boy like other ninja of his generation did, he had no doubts about the boy's inability to graduate. It was their fault to for not giving him the training that he needed to succeed.

However, shocked wouldn't even begin to express just how he felt when Naruto smiled at being told that he needed to make three clones to graduate and then proceeded to make ten of the clones. Iruka was flabbergasted, the boy had never shown this level of skill during class and there was no way that someone could improve this much over the course of a few days since their last training session.

All of that told him that the boy had been faking his skills throughout the entire year if not longer. He had no clue why the boy did and he sorely wanted to know why the boy had allowed himself to be considered the dead last when he obviously wasn't. However, he had to admit that it was rather fitting for the boy to do that. He was going to be a ninja after all and surprise was just another tool.

"Congratulations Naruto, you pass." Iruka said in a warm tone as he held out his hand with a headband in it.

"Was there ever any doubt Iruka-sensei." Naruto beamed at the chunin as he took the proffered headband and tied it proudly around his head to rest on his forehead.

"No, there never was." Iruka said with a guilty feeling at lying after he had just been thinking about how the boy wasn't going to be able to graduate.

After being dismissed, Naruto walked towards the classroom that held all of the idiots that didn't ever think that he could succeed. You could have heard a pin drop as Naruto walked into the classroom, proudly displaying his headband on his forehead with his hands behind his head. He just smirked at all of the slack-jawed faces that met his gaze.

"I see you didn't fail." Sasuke said with a smirk as Naruto finally reached their row.

"Seriously, was there ever any doubt?" Naruto replied with his own smirk.

* * *

Okay everyone, here is chapter 2. I appreciate and thank all of you who reviewed on the last chapter, and I ask that you do the same for this one. I truly appreciate those reviews. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Till next time.


	4. Notice

Notice

I am sorry to do this to you, all of my faithful readers whom have enjoyed my stories so much. Wow, that sounded as if I was beginning an 'I Quit' notice, didn't it. No, that isn't what this is for. Due to some recent revelations, I have gone through all of my stories and reread them. All of them have certain areas where I feel that they need work and improvement. Maybe this is just the author in me, or maybe I am actually right, who knows. All I know is that I am going to delete all of the chapters posted so far and start rewriting them. I will rewrite my stories one chapter at a time, and will switch between each of my stories once I get a chapter done, so that I can give each and every one of my faithful readers a chance to read something and not neglect certain stories. Most of the content and storyline will remain the same; however, I will be expanding upon certain characters that I realize now I neglected. Certain events that I merely mentioned will now be written about as they happen instead of mere back thought by the characters. So, if you're wondering whether it will be worth going back to reread the chapters that you've already read, your answer is yes. I hope that I don't lose any of you, but if you do decide to drop my story, I'll understand. Also, as a reminder, if you are reading one of my stories, I have several others going on that you might enjoy so go and check them out. I also have a beta for at least one of my stories, and I'll see if they wouldn't mind being the beta for the rest. If they won't the other stories will have to take a slight back burner until I can get the beta for them. Again, I express my desire for you to remain patient and to continue to read my stories. Thanks, as always, for without readers and fans, a writer is a nobody.

Ps. I'll keep this notice up for about a month so that hopefully all of you whom have followed my stories get a chance to see it and aren't confused when you suddenly notice that all of the chapters you had once read are now gone.


End file.
